While we’re going to have to keep waiting for fuel cell cars here in America, it’s possible that China will be able to create a hydrogen refueling infrastructure more easily than the rest of the world. The reason? Well, because they won’t have to retrofit as much as choose which fueling stations to build. So while GM is planning on selling hydrogen cars there, a much smaller company, Pearl Hydrogen, is making hydrogen bikes.

Unfortunately, the bike is still far to expensive for its proposed market, but representatives are saying that the price should drop from $2500 to $500 when they go to mass production. The bikes speed along at 15 mph for 60 miles and, when they run out of fuel, they can be ridden like a normal bike.

Unfortunately, that might be the default state, as the hydrogen infrastructure currently doesn’t exist. In any case, it’s better than a two-stroke moped.

Only 15 miles per hour?Only 15 miles per hour? really? I do have a decent road bike, (Trek 2.3C, $1500) and im far from the best bike rider out there, but i can and have gone 80-plus miles averaging about 15, and if thats its top speed, what is it going to do on the hills? i would have no interest in a hydro bike unless it can maintain 20mph up a 3% grade. then you really have something. less than that, and you will go bragging about your hydro bike to get trounced by a decent rider in good shape. so maybe around town for a lazy person it would be ok… And you still walk it up the hills…

Commuter Cycling Technologyif you want to know what it takes to live withp out a car and still cary too much stuff read this (my legs are killing me)http://commutercycling.blogspot.com/2009/12/i-need-10-gear-inches-with-390lbs-on-16.html

biker:)This in answer to those that think they are so macho that they can just bike anyplace and at anytime they choose. Of course there are those out there that can do just that and that’s wonderful. But comes a time in one’s life for one reason or another that just can’t do those 60 mile day rides any longer due to broken hips, or some other abnormal function. So if you think that there are all those “lazy” asses out there ,well, think again. There is certainly a place for a vehicle aside from the automobile that will sure serve the purpose of allowing one to take the “scenic route” and not be insulted by some “hot shot”! Let’s try to do better. There’s always room for improvement.

zero emission? what a lieI’ve spend the last one year of my life in China, the homeland of little bikes like that, and I must this is a great way to get around in this over crowded cities. The problem is this bike is far from ecological. The hydrogen it stores is produced in a small station that you keep at home, the problem is this station is powered with electricity, which in China is produced out of low quality coal. A fuel cell like this only makes sense where electrical power is made of renewable resources. Now, in EU where we actually use such ways of producing electricity, more than half of us doesn’t live in an overcrowded city, this bikes might be useful for Netherlands or Italy, but most of us are still dependent on cars or at least public transport.
Cheers, M.

My momma says…My momma says that unless you live in a place where transportation infrastrucure has been developed to readily accomodate bicycles and hi-speed bicycles (most countries accomodate pedal-power and not 20-30-km-per-hour-bikes), this technoloy would be useless for transport.
However, my momma also says that this is a step in the right direction. All we neednow is to re-incarnate the electric car. With new Silicon-Lithium batteries, the capacity and range of these electric cars could increase tenfold.

What he saidI agree that this is stupid, bikes have this nice concept of being 100% pollution free, except the carbon dioxide you reject by breathing.

What I would do is put a small motor on a bike just like this one and instead of batteries/fuel cell I would put super capacitors, which would help you up on steep climbs and recharge when going down one (also it would help you breaking if too steep). Super capacitors are very effective, vary light (compared to batteries/fuel cell set), don’t lose their charge over time, temperature change doesn’t affect them and they have high load/unload capacities.

The down side of a capacitor is that it has a smaller energy density than batteries or a fuel cell, but as long as it takes me up the hill I wouldn’t care, because I have legs goddammit.

[i]Right, because everyone is exactly like you, therefore this has no value. Far better that lazy people drive 2 or 3 ton belchers than a little zero emission bicycle, right? Must be perfect, otherwise bad![/i]

I agree it would be great if we could replace larger, more energy intensive vehicles with these. I’m just making the point that for a lot of environmentalists (the type of people who would be willing to buy this and the type of people that probably already ride bikes when they can) it might not be as green as it initially seems.
Saying they fit in nowhere was too harsh though, you’re right. If we could convince a couple SUV drivers to make a switch to these it would be incredible.
I also don’t like the term ‘zero emissions’ especially when referring to hydrogen, but that’s a whole new can of worms.

I wonder….Instead of just having to use the pedals only for propulstion, could the rotational energy be converted into electricy, that could then electrolyze the water and generate your own fuel?

Or maybe you could just pedal your lazy ass to the nearest refueling station to fuel up.

I definitely think it is a great idea to come up with cleaner ‘2-stroke’ transportation, since those types of vehicles are very very popular around the world, and are also very very dirty (not to mention they have some of the worst emissions per-person mile, worse than the worst SUV)

[i]I used to think electric and now hydrogen bikes were a good idea. Eventually I realised that they use energy that I would not otherwise use by biking and are nowhere near capable of replacing trips that I currently consider necessary to use my car. So where do they fit in to energy savings? Nowhere. They just use more energy so people can be lazy while riding their bikes.[/i]

Right, because everyone is exactly like you, therefore this has no value. Far better that lazy people drive 2 or 3 ton belchers than a little zero emission bicycle, right? Must be perfect, otherwise bad!

Environmentally harmfulI used to think electric and now hydrogen bikes were a good idea. Eventually I realised that they use energy that I would not otherwise use by biking and are nowhere near capable of replacing trips that I currently consider necessary to use my car.
So where do they fit in to energy savings? Nowhere.
They just use more energy so people can be lazy while riding their bikes.